Please...

Chapter Fourteen

"You've been visiting Harry for a month and you still haven't gotten any owls?"

"Nope. I promised I would talk to you after he explained why he wants me here."

"What did he say?" Severus sat next to Remus so he could also watch the young boy. "It... He said I could help you teach, and you wouldn't be cross a lot. You'd be happier, so he'd be happy, and I'd have a job. I could live with you two and we can... sleep in his room like we've done, and he'd feel safe. Loved. He feels like that when it's just the two of you, so please don't get angry.

"He told me he's different. He wants to be normal, and everyone he knows has a mum and a dad, so two dads couldn't be that different." Remus watched Severus' face carefully, waiting to see if it would change. It didn't. It remained emotionless, watching Harry.

"He said that?"

"You haven't told him anything, right?" Remus asked and turned to glare at Severus for a split second. "About...? Oh! No, I haven't told him anything, you dimwit. Yes, let me tell my son all about your love life from ten years ago, it's the biggest gossip in all of Britain."

"If that gets out, who's going to hire me then? You and him... that person are the only people who know. It's the eighties. People in the Muggle world get killed for being like me." Severus let out a sigh. "I don't have it out for you, you know. I'm not going to leak that just to ruin your life."

"How are you not grossed out?" Remus asked, doubting that Severus was telling the full truth. "I'm a wizard who is a single father, I'm a spy for the Light, and I'm known as 'the Greasy Dungeon Bat. Can't get much weirder than that, can you?" Remus let out a chuckle. "No, no you can't. But in all seriousness, what are we- you going to tell him?"

"I... I guess I could think about it. I can talk to Minerva about me getting an assistant teacher. You'd get about twelve hundred galleons a month, not fifteen, because you'd only be an assistant, but that's pretty good pay."

"Wait... that's... Holy Merlin that's a lot of money! That's almost six thousand pounds, which would be... Merlin's beard! Severus, that's over fifty thousand a year! I've never had that much money in my life! I could kiss you!" Remus stopped when he noticed he was rambling, and what he just said. "I... uh... dammit..."

"Damn?" Harry asked. "No!" Harry flinched. "Sorry, but that's a bad word. I didn't mean to say it."

"Adult word?"

"Yes. Go play for a bit, we're almost done talking, and then we can have dinner."

"I-I didn't mean to say that! I-It just slipped out, I swear!" Remus stuttered, a dark blush creeping up his face. "Don't sweat it. You're blushing." Severus smirked. "Got a crush on me, Lupin?"

"Sh-Shut up! We aren't teenagers anymore!"

"Aww, Remus, you flustered!"

"Harry, what do you want for dinner?" Remus asked, purposefully changing the topic. "Fish and chips?" Harry asked quietly. "Oh, Harry. I'm sorry I yelled before, okay? That really is just a naughty word."

"Will I get in trouble if I say it?" Remus looked to Severus for help. "Magic was a bad word there, and he got punished," Severus whispered to the werewolf. "Oh... No, Harry, you won't get in trouble." He looked to Severus for help as Harry climbed on Severus' lap. "Harry, do you know what a time out is?" Harry shook his head. "It's when you sit in a corner, like one in the living room, and you think about what you did wrong for about five to ten minutes depending on what you did. Then we would talk about it. If it was very bad, I might take away a toy for one day."

"Lily?!" Harry cried. "No. I will never take Lily, okay? More like a car or a ball or your markers, but I will never take Lily away. She's too important."